Challenge and Marriage
by Gyptian
Summary: Even T'Pau, eldest and most honourable member of the Vulcan High Council, must answer to someone. That does not prevent her from getting her way. Sequel to Abducted.


**Challenge and Marriage**

Author: Gyptian

Rating: PG

Genre: AU, Character study.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary: Even T'Pau, eldest and most honourable member of the Vulcan High Council, must answer to someone. That does not prevent her from getting her way.

When she'd been young, Vulcan had been a thriving planet, one of the founding members of the Federation and celebrated for its wealth in traditions and scientific discoveries. Now, two centuries later, nothing had changed, yet everything had.

A declining population was not an immediate problem, but T'Pau could make projections of Vulcan's future based on any given set of statistics more quickly than the team of upstart "experts" the Vulcan Science Academy had foisted on her. In several decades, it would start to put more pressure on the working population and leave gaps, especially in more menial fields of labour. The hierarchy of their society would be upset.

She had hoped Earth, though a pre-warp society yet, would offer a solution. She had miscalculated.

The summons from the Federation Council came soon after she'd ordered her great-grandson to return to Vulcan with fifty humans.

She stood before a collection of politicians she'd refused to join a half-century before. They still seemed to blame her, if the facial expressions were any indications. Her intelligence certainly confirmed it.

Emotional creatures were so easily compromised. Even her own family was not immune.

"You had no right, T'Pau, no right, to break the Prime Directive. Interference in pre-warp societies creates dependent economies that cannot contribute to the Federation."

No right to break a law she had written herself? "The Directive provides for certain exceptions."

"Self-preservation of a member planet is not one of those exceptions," a Betazed delegate countered. They were a most sentimental species.

"We did not interfere. We ensured our presence would not be detected by the humans."

"You already have," A Prrrr'gan said, with all the relish of one politician catching another in a scandal.

"I do not see how."

"You will find the information on this padd," he gestured for an attendant to bring it from his booth to hers. "Humans did not detect you, but the Orions did. When they saw such an upstanding member from the Federation break their own rules, they considered themselves free to do the same. They have been taking humans, supposedly to provide them with new territory and labour opportunities, but in truth to work in their dilithium mines, where even the stupidest Orion will not go willingly. You have condemned humanity to be destroyed by the Orions. Since they are in the Neutral Zone and already a compromised planet, there is nothing we can do."

T'Pau reviewed the information on the padd thoroughly before answering. The Council awaited her answer with smug murmurs. "I request permission to make amends."

"Denied. If you would go over there, Earth would become a colony of Vulcan. We will not countenance this."

"A protectorate at most."

"A dependent."

"Temporarily." She clasped her hands behind her back to relieve some of her tension through the flexing of her muscles.

"Permission denied, elder. You have spread your straw. You will lie in it. If the humans are strong enough and worthy of Federation membership, they will save themselves." The Prrrr'gan, Topaz, stamped his hooves in a show of arrogance.

"Military prowess is not the sole criterion for measuring a society's strength."

"Neither is their degree of obedience towards Vulcan. They will join us as a self-sufficient member or not at all. So it has been and so it will be. We are not the Romulan Star Empire." Even Betazoids, it seemed, were not sympathetic enough towards the species to support her.

"To make them suffer for our mistakes is unfair." Perhaps a more emotional appeal would help.

"Your mistakes, you mean." The Prrrr'gan's pronouncement firmly placed the blame on her shoulders and signalled the end of the meeting. They left.

45.9 seconds more, T'Pau waited in the empty chamber.

Others would have known themselves to be defeated after a disaster of such proportions. Under her leadership, her people had violated a law in a way that would disgrace Vulcan throughout the Federation. The alliance she'd hoped to make seemed impossible now.

T'Pau considered the new factors and reformulated several parts of her plan.

Despair flickered and died in the face of a mind that had propelled itself forward, powered by its own logic, for over two centuries.

When she exited the chamber sixty-seven seconds behind the others, T'Pau felt the serenity of one entirely sure of herself.

Prrrr'gan, when he saw her, put his ears back and bared his teeth at her. When she gazed at him 1.5 seconds more than was polite, his eyes started to show white around the edges.

She left for her homeworld.

888

When she arrived, a request for an audience awaited her from Sarek. His wish to speak to her was unprecedented.

She met him two days later, in her office rather than her audience chamber. From the lack of tension around his shoulders, Sarek understood the message.

He brought a human with him.

They contrasted in demeanor as much as they complimented each other in colouring. Both were the pale-skinned versions of their race, with dark hairs and eyes. Sarek stood straight, hands locked behind his back, as he always did. The human had shifted her weight to one leg, her arms loose by her sides and her face alive with interest. Unusual.

"Honoured clan mother, I have come to make a request of you." A personal matter? He never discussed those with her directly, but always went through his father or grandmother, while she was still alive.

"Speak your mind, Sarek." She gestured to the human. "Introduce us first."

He inclined his head. "Elder T'Pau, this is Amanda Grayson, one of the humans who has agreed to come to Vulcan. Amanda, this is the head of the House of Surak, T'Pau."

"Elder." She bowed at exactly the correct angle for an in-law.

"Elder, you have once said the House of Surak must set an example for all of Vulcan." He quoted her. Another novelty. "I have found a compatible mate in Amanda Grayson and wish to ask your permission to bond."

After a second, merely to see the tension appear in his face, she said, "Granted. Amanda Grayson may enter our House and bond with you at the koon-ut'kalifee when the Time comes."

"Yes, elder. I hear and obey." They bowed simultaneously and left her office.

It seemed some parts of her plan would complete themselves at a faster rate than previously anticipated.

It was time to implement adjustments to her plan. She would discuss the possibility of long-range scans of Earth with the Science Academy and the Space Exploration and Defence Association. They had a duty to their future ally.


End file.
